Second Battle of Italica
The Second Battle of Italica was the last battle in the Imperial Civil war and Japanese-Imperial war in which Zorzal's remaining forces made a last-ditch attempt to seize Italica, the capital of pro-Japanese Imperial Government in desperate attempt to win the war after more than half of his force being eliminated by JSDF Blitzkrieg Offensive. In nature, Zorzal's attack on Italica is actually to mend his injured ego rather than doing any useful to change the course of the war, showing how desperate Zorzal and his inner circle really are when they refuse to accept that they are going to lose one way or another. The reason behind this fact is that Zorzal and his goons had completely depleted all the Empire's manpower at this time after they lost half of their forces from the JSDF Blitzkreig Offensive plus tons of sacrificial troops taking from all Imperial Province that participated in the doomed offensive in Marais. Prelude In order to prevent interferences from the JSDF, Zorzal divided his army into several smaller forces, which he used to conduct multiple ambushes on JSDF forces in order to distract them while his main force assaults Italica. In order to raise the morale of his generals and pro-war senators, he gives them information that the Imperial troops are fighting fiercely to decimate the fighting power of the JSDF and the Loyalist. Furthermore, he promises that he will send reinforcements to support the fight against the JSDF with one condition: they will have to ambush the JSDF first so Zorzal can gather reinforcements in time. In reality, however, Zorzal's forces were being annihilated by the JSDF's bombing runs and tanks' firings while increasingly losing territories to the Loyalist. Zorzal was even willing to abandon all generals and pro-war senators commanding the ambush to die in vain without sending any reinforcements to them just so he can attack Italica without any JSDF interfence. Italica's fierce resistance At Italica, Zorzal's force of 10,000 men initially gains the upper hand in the battle due to their vast number, but they face stubborn resistance from the pro-Japanese Imperials defending Italica, as well as the force of dwarves, warrior bunnies, dark elves and others demi-human races who allied themselves with the JSDF and pro-Japanese factions. Despite the superhuman fighting power of the Dwarves, Warrior Bunnies, Dark Elves and others demi-human races plus the blasting magic of the mage of Rondels as well as the superior fighting power of the Rose Order of Knight, the defender were soon overwhelmed by the vast number of Zorzal's force. Battle in Colt Formal's Palace While the Loyalist and the JSDF's reinforcement battles Zorzal's force, Bouro gave the order to all remaining Haryo members along with the Pied Piper to storm the Court Formal's palace to capture Molt in his sick bed, they however faced heavy resistance from the Court Formal's maids and some members of the Rose Order of Knight guarding the place along with some JSDF members commanded by Akira Yaginada. Despite valiantly defended Molt's room, Shandy Gaff Marea and Suissesse Co Mein perished from the sheer number of the tribe and Aurea being beheaded by a tribe member. As they tried to enter the room, Aurea's head manage to kill the nearest tribe member by sucking his life force to buy enough time for Koji and the rest of the JSDF security personnel to storm at Molt's position and kill off the rest of the Haryo tribe member. Despite being confined to a wheel chair, Akira successfully kill the Pied Piper with his pistol by shooting her multiple time in the chest. Herm Fule Maio's pathetic negotiation As the earthquake scared and demoralized Zorzal's troops, Herm Fule Maio attempted to persuaded Pina Co Lada to surrender as his troops's fragile morale were not suit for fighting in this moment. When he arrived at Pina's position, he expected Pina's troops to be scared just like Zorzal's troops but much to his surprise mixed with horror, he saw that the Rose Order of Knights and the Loyalist still stood firm and fearless with high battle spirit as he didn't realize that the JSDF had trained and taught the Rose Knights and the Loyalists to not to fear the earthquake. The scenario made him to realize that Pina clearly had the advantages to win the battle so he had to make sure Pina surrendered. Herm Fule Maio: “Pina-denka, this has been a long, arduous battle. Surely you’ve had enough? I doubt anyone will dare call you a coward now that you’ve fought this hard. They will sing of your Highness’ courage throughout the ages. Now is the time to sheathe your sword. I urge you to surrender.” Pina Co Lada: “No. I will not suffer your existence any longer.” Herm Fule Maio: “Why are you so stubborn? Do you not care for the lives of your people? They are all capable and fair; surely they have a bright future ahead of them. Do you not wish to help them?” Pina Co Lada: “Of course I do.” “In that case―” “It is because I want to help them that I cannot back down here.” Herm Fule Maio: “Why is that? You must know that ahead of you waits certain death.” Pina Co Lada: “That is because if I let Nii-sama escape, he will surely rally more troops for an uprising. When that happens, men will die. If we do not settle things right here and now, the number of dead and injured will only continue to pile up.” Herm Fule Maio: “What are you saying? Can you not see the circumstances? Should you not be considering how to save your men? Why are you considering Zorzal-denka’s escape? In the future, everyone will look up to Zorzal-denka, and he will forge a new Empire, When that happens, who will rise up? Your worries are truly ill-founded. If you are willing to surrender, then the rebellion within the Empire will be at an end.” Pina Co Lada: “And then you will continue fighting Nihon? And then even more soldiers will be made to die?” Herm Fule Maio: “About that…” Helm could not deny that point. If Zorzal won, he would surely go on to fight Japan. Having commanded armies against the Japanese, Helm knew very well what Pina meant when she said, “more soldiers will be made to die.” Pina Co Lada: “And then countless innocents will be drawn into the fray. All for the sake of a battle you cannot win.” Herm Fule Maio: “Your Highness. No, it is for the sake of winning the battle. This sacrifice must be made for the Empire to triumph.” Pina Co Lada: “Yes. For victory. I am standing here for the sake of victory. I am driving everyone to the abyss of death and forcing them to fight for the sake of victory.” Herm Fule Maio: “You believe you will win, your Highness?” Pina Co Lada: “Of course.” - Pina refused to surrender to Zorzal's force and pointed out the consequences of letting Zorzal to reign free and self-destruct the Empire towards the futile war against Japan, much to Herm Fule Maio's pathetic excuses, depicted in light novel volume 10 chapter 10. When he approaches Pina's camp, he praised Pina for her tenacity to fight the numerically superior army of him and Zorzal and pledged with her to surrender. When Pina furiously resisted, Herm mocked her foolish stubbornness and suicidal for pushing her men to their certain death. Pina then explained that she couldn't surrender now since if she didn't stop Zorzal now, he would continue to self-destruct the Empire. This causes Herm to become amused as he thought that it was extremely absurd that Zorzal could be stopped by her little army and he was destroying the Empire. Consequently, he glorified Zorzal as a person that would create a new Empire and everyone would look up to him as a great leader. Enraged with Herm's live-in-denial attitude and ultra-deluded mindset, Pina countered Herm's stupid argument with an undeniable fact that if he and Zorzal defeated her, they would foolishly push themselves and the entire Empire into the JSDF's meat grinder. This truth caused Herm to completely stiffed his tongue and was slapped back to reality as he just suddenly realized the consequences of getting stomped by the JSDF even if Zorzal's forces managed to defeat the Loyalists as he, himself achieved nothing against the JSDF by wasting manpower. Pina continuously scolded Herm and Zorzal's brain-dead desire to fight the force beyond their puny power, causing him to pathetically argue that it is necessary for thousands of innocent people and Imperial soldiers to throw away their life to defeat the JSDF. This causes Pina to stop as she realized that arguing with a meathead was pointless and assured that she would win against the battle, much to Herm's dismay. The JSDF comes to save the day once again As Pina rallied her remaining forces to fight to the death against Zorzal's army, two Phantom Jet Fighters dropped napalm bombs on the Imperial Army, which instantly incinerated more than half of the Inperial force. After the bombing, JSDF squadron of helicopters began to spray bullets on the now-broken Imperial Army, causing them to lose their organization and run for their lives. To add the insult to injury, the Elbe troops along with several demi-human army allied with the JSDF also came to wipe out Imperial Army's stragglers. Drowned in joy to see that the JSDF became their savior once again, Pina and her troops shouted loudly in happiness as they charged towards the Imperial troops and slaughtered them as they know that victory was in their hands. However, Pina pressed her troops to capture Zorzal at all cost to stop the Empire from destroying itself once and for all. The disintegration of Zorzal's force Herm Fule Maio: We’re going to retreat. We’ll fall back to Padbarcalei and regroup there.” However, Karasta shook his head, a defeated expression on his face. Karasta: “Helm! Forget it. We’ve lost.” Herm Fule Maio: “Not yet. As long as our army is fine, we can rise from the ashes! If I accept a defeat like this, how can I face Pina-denka?” Karasta: “Pina-denka? Not Zorzal-denka?” Herm Fule Maio: “Oh, yes, Zorzal-denka. Is his Highness alright? Has he retreated safely?” However, nobody could answer that question. The staff officers and his runners had vanished from the command post, and even the standard-bearers had thrown down their banners and ran away. Herm Fule Maio: “Is, is anyone there? Where’s his Highness!?” Nobody answered. At some point, the men around Helm had also vanished - Herm Fule Maio madly refused to accept the reality that he had lost the war and revealed that his reason to fight the pointless war was to feel superior to Pina, causing the remaining pro-war generals to abandon him, depicted in volume 10 chapter 10 of the light novel. Despite seeing the Imperial Army crumble around him, Herm Fule Maio, still held strong with his delusion and desire to fix his pathetically wounded pride, began to shout to his troops to retreat and regroup to fight another day. However, all Zorzal's inner circles members had finally realized that further resistance was futile and urged Herm to accept the fact that they had lost the war and there was nothing they could do. Unfortunately, in a fit of madness, Herm crazily assured to them that the pro-war force could still rise from the ashes if they could retreat and rebuild army. At the same time, Herm unintentionally revealed that his only reason to fight this foolish war was to make sure that he was always better than Pina by deliberately revealing that he couldn't face Pina after he accepted his loss. Consequently, this caused most of the remaining generals to fed up with him and abandoned him to his fate. Herm then frantically ran at Zorzal's tent to find him only to find it abandoned, He fell into despair and cry out how Zorzal gonna continue fighting without an army. At this time, he heard the large of army was marching near his place, making him to gain some hope as he assumed there were some Imperial troops left for him to command the retreat. However, much to his horror, it was Duran's troops surrounding his position. “Dammit, in that case, Pina-denka! Fight me! Please fight me!” Helm swung his sword at the demihumans as he shouted. He slashed with his blade, he kicked their shields, he rammed them with his body. But he was just one man against many, and soon Helm was relieved of his sword and all his limbs pinned down. “Pina! I, I challenge―” A Dwarf warrior smashed Helm in the face with his shield, and his vision went black - Herm Fule Maio finally met the end of his line after shouting Pina to fight him to preserve his pathetic honor, depicted in light novel volume 10 chapter 10. Horrified to know that there was no escape for him, he screamed and swing his swords at Duran's demi-human troops as they surrounded him in order to subdue him. Unwilling to let a Viscount like himself be pinned down by demi-human troops due to his racism, he madly screamed Pina to come to fight him to make him feel that at least he lost in honor than disgrace, causing the surrounding troops to immobilize him and a Dwarf warrior smashed him in the face with the shield to shut him up for good. The end of the moronic tyrant "He ground his teeth on the back of his horse, cursing, “It’s all Helm’s fault” and “if only Pina weren’t there” and so on. Then he went on to “It’s because of those damn traitors. They bowed to the enemy and refused to fight fair”, and then he went back to “Hm, so it ended up like this. How did things end up like this?” He was going around in circles." - Zorzal screams in rage and despair as he lost the war, depicted in light novel chapter 10 volume 10 “Gentlemen, the responsibility for this defeat lies with these people. Of course, that implies it was my mistake for once taking their side. For that I must apologize. Therefore, I seek everyone’s help in rectifying this mistake!”- Zorzal succumbs to Tyuule's manipulation and blamed Upson and Bouro for his defeat, depicted in light novel chapter 10 volume 10. Aftermath “General Hazama! A report from Colonel Kengun: we have exterminated Zorzal’s army, over.”- a JSDF soldier reported their victory against Zorzal's forces in both Marais and Italica to General Hazama, depicted in light novel, volume 10 chapter 10 Trivia * It is unknown why the Haryo tribe still supports Zorzal in this battle since even if Zorzal won against the Loyalists, the JSDF would force to kill him and destroy the rest of his army as well as conquering the Empire to quell any more fighting later on, making their plan to devour the Empire from the inside in vain to begin with. * The reason why Zorzal and his goons thought that defeating the Loyalists could help them win the Imperial Civil War is because they want to pridefully deny the awful and unavoidable fact that they’re going to lose the war one way or another to the JSDF. As the result, the battle is a pinnacle of Zorzal and his inner circles's live-in-denial attitude since they continue to fight a hopeless war while willing to ignore the consequences after that. * Despite losing her life, Tyuule is only member of Zorzal's faction to succeed in her goal of making the Empire no longer the Empire as Zorzal wasted his remaining military forces in this battle. Gallery 05a-000g.jpg|Mamina and Persia fighting the Haryo tribe assassins. 05a-000a.jpg|Pina commands her troops to fight against Zorzal's army. Category:Battles Category:Events